The diverse Syriac Christians had
varying opinions about the Mhaggraye.However, their common description of the Mhaggraye warrants
attention and consideration.In this
paper, except for comparative hints, I will avoid the Byzantine Christian
sources because Byzantine Christians were attacked and lost their land to the
conquering Muslims.Having the Byzantine
faced this experience, their written reaction about the Muslim were not so
objective.Additionally, I will avoid
the Arabic, Islamic sources not simply because they were the victors who could
write in justification of their conquests, but in actual fact because there is
no contemporary Arabic writing concerning the events in the seventh century.
Arabic chronologies and other writings are not available before the late eighth
century.Thus, I will limit myself to
the Syriac writers, who were neither declared enemies nor outward friends of
the new conquerors.

The Diverse Syriac
Christians

By the seventh century, the Syriac
Christians were ecclesiastically divided into four main groups.There were Chalcedonians or Melkites: monotheletes
and dyothelete; non-Chalcedonians: Jacobites, and Nestorians.The Syriac, Chalcedonian Christians, who had
been at something of an advantage under the Byzantine rule because of their
ecclesiastical affiliation with the dominant Byzantine emperor,[2]
grieved their loss and expressed anger at the invasion.The non -Chalcedonian Christians, however,
lost no advantage and were saved of religious and doctrinal persecution- the
Jacobites had been oppressed by the Byzantines, and the Nestorians had
undergone persecution by the Persian Zoroastrians. Thus, they viewed the
advance of Mhaggraye from the standpoint of their own ecclesiastical
affiliations, their relations with the previous political authorities, and
their relations with the new people.

Historical Orientation

The Syriac writers well knew the
Arabs in various aspects and many appellations: Arabaye, Tayyaye, Sons of Hagar
and Ishmaelite.Upon the advance of the
Arabs, however, additional new names were employed, like Tayyaye of Muhammad,
but mostly Mhaggraye. The unprecedented name, Mhaggraye, is
provocative because it provides the greatest evidence for their selfidentification
as immigrants (muhajerun).In other words, the name Immigrants (muhajerun) implies that the Arabs had
arrived to stake a claim on, occupy, and then inherit, the land.The Syriac writers, reporting and repeating
what they were hearing rather than inventing a historical event, merely
Syriacized this native Arabic name.

An early circulated story among the
Syriac writers, also shared with contemporary Sebeos History,[3]
enhance the impression of the Christian writers that the Arabs had come with
the intention to stay.The story relates
that upon his visit to Palestine,
Muhammad admired the Jewish monotheism and the fertility of their land, which
had been given to them (Jews) as a result of their belief in one God.The story continues that when Muhammad
returned to his tribesmen, he set this belief before them, saying: if you
listen to me, abandon these vain gods and confess the one God, then to you too
will God give a land flowing with milk and honey.[4]

Evidently, the Syriac writers
employed secular or political terms to address the leaders of Mhagrayye.Conventionally, they called the Arab caliphs
Kings (melke), the governors as
princes (amire), rulers (shalite, or rishe, or rishane).[5]In a clearly ethnical approach to the Mhaggraye
as a group, John of Phenek writes, "among them (Arabs), there are many
Christians, some of whom are from the heretics, others from us."[6]
Concerning Muhammad, for the most part, he was described as the first king of
the Mhaggraye, but occasionally he was called Guide (Mhaddyana) or Teacher (Teraa),[7]
or Leader (mdabrana).[8]Thus, at that time, Christians regarded the
Arabs in ethnic and politic rather than in religious terms.

The Invasion as Gods
Punishment

All the diverse four groups agreed
in principle on one basic precept: that the invasion was sent by God Himself in
punishment for their sins.Moreover,
they blamed one another for having brought down Gods anger.John of Phenek (690s) viewed the Mhaggraye
as a people sent by God to punish Christians on account of heresies,[9]
but also their own laxity of faith.[10]John elaborated that God called the Arabs
from the end of the earth, to destroy through them a sinful kingdom and to
humiliate through them the proud spirit of the Persians.[11]
The Jacobite writings reported that because of the wickedness of the Romans,
the God of vengeance sent the Ishmaelites from the land of the South to effect
through them our deliverance.[12]
A Chalcedonian, monothelite author of the Syriac Life of Maximus attributes
the sweeping invasion of the Arabs (Tayyaye) to all lands and islands because
of Gods wrath on the account of the wickedness of Maximus and his followers
(dyothelites).[13]
Conversely, the Dyothelete Anastasios considers the Arab victories as Gods punishment
for Constans IIs promonothelite policy.[14]
On Christmas Eve of 634, one year after the conquest of Palestine, the Melkite Patriarch, Sophronius
of Jerusalem exhorted his congregation to repent so that Gods punishment may
be removed, namely, the occupation of the Ishmaelites (Arabs).He continued, through repentance, we shall
blunt the Ishmaelite sword and break the Hagarene bow, and see Bethlehem again.[15]

The common assumption among all
Syriac groups that the advance of Mhaggraye was a divine act of
punishment conveys that they all expected a quick end, or some kind of closure,
of the Mhaggrayes role.This was
not merely conjecture on their part.In
fact, all sources that dated to the end of the seventh century elaborated on
the First and Second Civil Wars among Arab political and tribal factions as a
sign of their total destruction.[16]

Mhaggrayes Religious Orientation

Unlike the Byzantines, the Syriac
writers were the first people ever to report about and eventually engage with
the Mhaggraye on religious matters. In the earliest Syriac document
dated to 644, the author refers to Mhaggraye as having accepted the
Torahnot the Gospelsjust as the Jews and Samaritans.[17]Moreover, the document describes Jews
standing by the Emir of Mhaggraye in order to scrutinize the sayings of
Christians.[18]Although a good portion of the discussion
between the Emir of Mhaggraye was about the scriptures, none of them
referred to the Quran; a possible indication that the Quran was not yet in
circulation.One of the earliest Syriac
apocalypses in Islamic times, pseudonymously attributed to Ephrem, referred to
Mhaggraye in religious terms as the offspring of Hagar, handmaid of Sarah, who
holds the covenant of Abraham, the husband of Sarah and Hagar.[19]The Brief Chronicle sees nothing unusual for
the Arabs (Tayyaye) to worship at the Dome (: ܩܘܒܬܐqubta) of Abrahama reference
to al-Kaaba since they had been doing from the ancient days to pay homage to
the father of the head of their nation / community (i.e., Ishmael).[20]Moreover, the Brief Chronicle argues that the
Arabs (Tayyaye) changed the name of the city of Yathreb to Midina after the name of the
fourth son of Abraham Midian.[21]Directly, John of Phenek describes the Mhaggrayes
beliefs as worshippers of One God in accordance with the old Law (Old
Testament).[22]John continues that the Mhaggraye held
the instructions of Muhammad, who became their instructor (Taraa/ mhadyana); and they were inflicting the death penalty on any
persons violating Muhammads instructions.[23]Later chronicles associated the building of
the Dome of the Rock on the site of the temple of Solomon
with the eschatological rebuilding of the temple, by the Jews.[24]None of the Syriac sources declared Mhaggraye
as Jews, but all viewed them as having a monotheistic belief following a Jewish
precedent.

Conclusion

Although the Syriac writers did not
intend to write the history of early Islam per se, everything they wrote
concerning Islam is vital because they shed light on several historical
events.In addition, religiously
speaking, the Syriac writers believed early Muslims (Mhaggraye) to be
the descendant of Abraham through Ishmael and Hagar, people confessing the One
God, who brought them to the region to punish the heretics, and to cause the
faithful to repent.In other words, they
were seen as a people with a divine task, but they were also to be banished
upon the completion of that task.However, there is no clear indication that the Syriac writers recognized
the birth of a new religion called Islam since it is certainly never named as
such.

[16] Ps.-Ephrem; Ps-Methedios; John the Lesser; John of Phenek;for text and translation of John of Phenke
see book XV, A. Mingana, Sources Syriaques (Vol. 1, Letpzig: 1907) 143* - 179*;
also see S. Brock, North Mesopotamia in the Late Seventh Century: Book XV of John
of Penkayes Ris Melle, Studies in Syriac Christianity (London: Variorum,
1992) 51-75; on the historical background of the Arab Civil Wars, see G. R.
Hawting, The First Dynasty of Islm: The Umayyad Caliphate AD 661-750 (London: 1989) 51-53.